The commercial properties key to Preston Street’s lively character are spilling over into residential surroundings, says a leading community advocate who points to the recent rezoning of a home at 73 Aberdeen St. to accommodate a new art gallery in the neighbourhood.
“The character of the neighbourhood goes downhill,” argues Dalhousie Community Association president Eric Darwin, who criticizes the infiltration of residential areas by commercial sites.
Spiral Gallery, the newly approved owner-occupied business at the Aberdeen Street address, is expected to be open to the public in a few months but has not received the warmest welcome from Darwin and some others who live in the Little Italy area.
But owner Louise Carota says she is “lucky” to have found a property so close to Preston Street, and chose Little Italy because of her own Italian background.
Her art gallery, though, is a creation that might need time to gain acceptance.
“With permissive zoning, or if the city lets this stuff go on, then eventually it becomes unattractive as a residential street because every second or fifth house is a business,” contends Darwin.
The issue of whether commercial and residential properties can exist in harmony or should be kept separate is a major planning focus at the City of Ottawa.
The zoning bylaw for 73 Aberdeen was amended in July to allow for the artist studio and additional uses such as display and sale areas and an instructional facility. The owner’s plans also included a one-bedroom apartment on the ground floor.
Darwin claims the “token one-bedroom apartment” was included as part of the renovation plans to persuade city planner Douglas James to rezone the property for commercial use.
James acknowledges that one of the things that helped with 73 Aberdeen’s rezoning proposal was that it was a mixed-use building, having included both a residential and commercial component. but added that the city’s response to a proposal for purely commercial use “wouldn’t outright be no.”
Even though a concern about parking was raised by a nearby resident at a planning committee meeting in June, the renovation plan is proceeding.
Carota says any traffic and parking issues caused by the opening her art school should not have a major impact the neighbours.
“Ottawa already has plenty of facilities where art classes are available,” says Carota. “What I plan to offer is an introduction to art to three or four adults at a time,” making the additional traffic manageable.
Having lost the battle to keep 73 Aberdeen residential, the DCA shifted ground to support exterior renovations to the house to help it fit into the neighbourhood.
Darwin says that he wants Carota and other business owners in residential areas to make positive changes for the long term and “not allow the neighbourhood to turn into a series of parking lots or cheapo business conversions that just blight the neighbours.”